


Josh and I Run a 5k!

by lemonypond



Category: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (TV)
Genre: Ensemble Cast, F/M, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Humor, M/M, Plotting, Scheming
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-20
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-22 00:03:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6063118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lemonypond/pseuds/lemonypond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the Textastrophy, Rebecca and Paula try to find a way to get back in Josh's good graces. Meanwhile, Darryl tries to find a way to get closer to White Josh.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Snail ya later

**Author's Note:**

> If there's a positive response to this, I'll continue! (Just kidding, I'll continue anyway.)
> 
> Spoilers through 1.11 (That Text was not Meant for Josh!)

Rebecca sat at her desk, typing but not typing, then breaking pencils so she could keep sharpening them, when Paula finally walked in her office, carrying an armful of files.

“Oh thank, God, I was going crazy in here,” Rebecca said, throwing her final pencil stub in the trash bin. There were pencil shavings scattered all over the floor, basically anywhere except the actual trash.

“Still haven’t heard from Josh?” Paula asked, not missing a beat. Rebecca shook her head while she bit her lip.

“Alright, so what do we do?” Paula asked, sinking into the chair across from Rebecca. “Oh, I know! You can…rent a dog,” seeing Rebecca’s look she pushed through, “hear me out, you can go on the internet and rent a dog for like a day, and we’ll take a bunch of pictures of you with it, like you just went to the shelter and adopted it, but then you call Josh in a panic saying it ran away, and you’re really upset because you _just got it_ , but really it’s with Scott and he’ll just take it for a couple of hours while you get Josh to drive you around town, and then we’ll set up a rendezvous point! And Josh can find the dog and be your hero and-“

Rebecca just raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, that one got away from me. Sorry.” Paula shrugged. “Man, I am _off_ today.”

“I can’t do any more schemes,” Rebecca pushed back in her chair, defeated. “That’s how I got in this stupid mess in the first place. I spooked him when he busted me in his apartment. And between his stupid shifts at Aloha and training for his stupid tae kwon do thingy next weekend, he’s too busy anyway. Even Valencia hasn’t seen him.”

“Honey, you’ve got to stop sitting out in front of their apartment…without me,” Paula said before Rebecca could say anything in protest. “Josh will get over it, because remember, _you believe in him in a way no one else does-_ he said that, remember! Valkyrie will make him feel guilty about something and he will miss his Becks and come crawling back. This is not over, missy,” Paula said, sparking a small smile on her best friend’s face.

“Knock, knock! What are you guys talking about?” Darryl asked, popping his head in the door. Rebecca and Paula shared a look, not knowing what to say. Darryl had been poking his nose in their business at work a lot more than usual since the party bus disaster. “You haven’t seen your friend, that..what is his name? Josh…something…”

“Chan,” Paula and Rebecca recited in unison, both aware and neither caring about it. “He’s busy training for a sports recital…thing…tournament?” Paula nodded in response, "tournament."

“Chan! Right! You know what? I think he’s been training with Josh Wilson at my gym a couple of nights a week.”

Rebecca and Paula stared harder.

“Right! Sorry, you guys call him White Josh,” Darryl continued. The girls nodded in realization.

“Did you need something Darryl?” Paula asked, her curiosity piqued.

Darryl looked around the room a little longer than was comfortable for anyone in the room. “Oh right! I came around to ask if either of you were going to sign up for the 3rd annual West Covina Waggle Run? It’s a 5K to benefit the animal shelter over on East Cameron. It’s where Madison got all of her snails. I thought we as a firm would be a sponsor this year, and I thought…maybe we could get some folks to run it too. You interested?”

There was a brief silence followed by the loudest, longest fit of laughter Darryl had ever witnessed.

“It’s not _that_ fu- you know what? I’ll come back,” Darryl said, his shoulders slumping as he turned to go.

Paula, still laughing, stood up and called after him. “Darryl! Darryl, come back! We’re sorry! You just…” she started laughing again.

“He thinks we’re gonna run!” Rebecca’s face was turning red.

Rebecca suddenly stopped laughing and turned to Paula, who was laughing so hard she bounced off the wall behind her. “Paula! That’s it!”

The blood drained from Paula’s face. “Wh-what?”

“The 5K! That’s how we get Josh to hang out again!”

“Cookie, _no man_ is worth running for _, not even Josh Chan_!” Paula panicked.

“Don’t go soft on me Proctor! Relax! We work -NOT RUN- the 5k, they’ll need volunteers to stand around and hand out water and crap. We get _Josh_ to sign up to run!” Paula’s whole body relaxed as she spoke.

“Ooooooh that’s good. That’s good,” Rebecca continued, “It hits both his need to do good things for people _and_ his need to be athletic and sweaty,” Rebecca pondered, a smile spreading over her face as she spoke.

“So you’ll do it?” Darryl swung back in the room, hanging from the door like an excited child.

“We’re not running-” Paula bargained. "But we'll help you out. BUT- you'll owe us.

“GREAT!” he clapped and danced a jig. “ Anything you want! Anything! So we need to recruit runners so I need you guys to come to the gym with me tonight to set up a sign up table. I think Josh is working out with Josh tonight at 6:30, we could go set up then?”

Paula stared at Darryl’s over-eager face then back to Rebecca’s ridiculous grin and then back to Darryl, then back to Rebecca once more. “Wait, who gets snails at an animal shelter?”


	2. You need to lift this bar

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Whitefeather crew goes to the gym to recruit for the 5k, and the Joshes just happen to be there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is a MUSICAL NUMBER.

“You know what I think?” Paula asked as they taped a sign to the table they had carried in from the car. “I think this place needs more people in tight spandex. Oh look, my wish has come true,” she deadpanned as Darryl came sauntering in wearing some very snug blue and black lycra pants.

Rebecca looked up and immediately regretted her decision. “Ugh…can you wish up some bleach for my eyes now, genie?”

“Ha-ha, made you look!” Paula taunted.

“What’s up ladies?” Darryl asked, scanning the weight room off to his left. Paula followed his line of sight to where White Josh was using the free weights and looking very veiny.

“Uhhh, Darryl? I thought you said this was the third annual run thing, this flyer says this is the first.” Rebecca asked, picking up a stack of flyers.

“Hmmm? Oh did I say third? That’s weird. I must’ve read…ya know what? I think I need to go to the optometrist…can’t see any more, damn these eyes!” he laughed nervously. Paula eyed him from the table.

“And why does it say ‘East Cameron Animal Services would like to thank Whitefeather and Associates for sponsoring this 5k fundraiser’? Darryl, what’s going on here?” Paula asked.

Darryl didn’t hear her, however, as White Josh, recognizing Darryl and Rebecca, came walking over.

“Heeeey Josh! How’s it going, man?” Darryl asked, almost knocking the flyers from Rebecca’s hands and nearly taking out the table with his knee.

White Josh grinned, “It’s going good, bro, just finished up my bicep sets, saw you guys over here, thought I’d say hi before hitting the bench press with Josh; he should be here any minute.”

“That’s cool, that’s cool.” Darryl said.  Paula and Rebecca just stood there watching the strange tennis match in front of them.

“So…what are you and Rebecca and…I’m sorry, I don’t…”

“It’s Paula. I work with these two.”

“Paula. A pleasure.” He shook her hand. “What are you guys doing?” White Josh asked, taking a flyer from Rebecca’s hand. Paula was amused.

“Oh wow! That’s so cool!” White Josh grinned like a little boy. “I love dogs! I want to get one but my apartment complex doesn’t allow them, so I go there sometimes to volunteer and just play with the dogs,” he said, pointing at the flyer.

“Do you? That’s so…huh. Yeah. We’re putting this thing together to raise money for them.” Darryl said, dipping his head to the side.

“That’s…what the flyer says,” White Josh smirked.

“Would you want to sign up for it?” Darryl asked. “I’m gonna run it too, it’ll be fun!”

White Josh was just about to answer when Josh showed up, all high fives and smiles. Darryl’s head sank as Rebecca’s perked up.

“Hey Josh!” Rebecca poked her head between Darryl and White Josh.

“Oh…hey…Rebecca. And…Paula.” Josh nodded, the smile falling from his face. “What is…” he looked around, “everyone doing here?”

“Hey Josh, hey!” Rebecca repeated eagerly. “We’re signing up people for a 5k to raise money for the animal shelter on East Cameron!” she spat out as she threw a flyer into his hands.

“Aw, that’s awesome,” Chan smiled, for a moment forgetting the weirdness between them. “I wanted to get a dog, but Valencia says a dog would only destroy everything in the apartment and doesn’t want all her clothes covered in dog hair,” he rolled his eyes.

Paula bemusedly muttered “ _I DO still got it_ ” to herself, which was cut short by Rebecca’s elbow to her ribs.

“Shut up!” she hissed to her friend. “That’s…that’s terrible. Dogs are awesome! I had a shih tzu once, when I was eight, his name was Ira Gershwin and my mom hated him because he always peed in her shoes. It was so cool, he was the best dog ever, until she left the gate open…every…day.” The realization that her mom made her only friend run away when she was eight settled over her face.

The crowd stared awkwardly.

“Oh…well that’s…terrible,” White Josh said, frowning. “So Chan, I’m doing it, you in?”

“Well I never turn down a race and a t-shirt. I’m in!” he smiled. “Rebecca are you going to run?”

Rebecca looked at him, his brown, puppy dog eyes melting her heart as time seemed to slow down around him. “Yes. Yes. Yes I am,” she shook her head back into reality. “Yeah, Darryl, Paula, and I are…running… this…race.”

“We are?” Darryl and Paula asked in unison.

“We are! Great! So everyone’s running! How…fantastic!” Paula said through her gritted teeth.

“Great! So where do we sign up?” Josh Chan asked, looking relieved. Rebecca quickly pulled him and White Josh over to the table and began signing them up. Paula stared wildly at her two colleagues, imagining scenarios where strangulation wouldn’t be prosecuted.

Turning back to Darryl, White Josh clapped his new friend on the back. “This is a great idea, they need all sorts of things over there, they’re running low on donations, so this couldn’t come at a better time.”

Darryl began to stammer. “Oh, oh really? That’s…huh.”

“Hey, WhiJo, I think I’m going to hit the treadmill and do some cardio, you cool?” Chan asked over his shoulder.

“Naw, it’s cool, Chan,” White Josh nodded. “So looks like I’m out a spotter. You wanna work out with me Darryl?”

Grand, sweeping, orchestral music began to swell around Darryl, and he wasn’t really sure where it was coming from. In front of him, White Josh suddenly had much longer, and much curlier hair, and Darryl started looking around for a fan, because White Josh’s hair was blowing in a wind, and the overhead gym lights were dimmed.

“Yeah let me just grab my bag…”

A spotlight found White Josh as he sat down at the bench press.

And he began to sing in a beautiful tenor.

“When I work out I find my strength, doesn’t just come from my arms,

It comes from my core too. But I…”

White Josh stopped singing. “Uhh…Darryl, you want to…?” He motioned to the bar behind him and lay flat on his back.

“Oh right! Sorry.” Darryl said, moving behind the bench.

The music starts up again and White Josh starts to sing again.

“And I find my strength, isn’t just from my arms, it comes from my core too,”

“But right now I just feel so weak….”

“I need you to lift this bar....”

The music stops. “Uh Darryl? I need you to lift this bar.”

Darryl quickly moves to help move the bar off the stand, and White Josh starts benching the heavy weights. And strangely, he begins to sing again.

“I need you to lift the bar so your heart can soar…”

“Darryl you are kinda cute and I think we could have fun together…”

“I know you don’t understand what you feel down in your core….” A choir suddenly appears and accompanies White Josh, dressed in gym clothes.

“But when you do, just know…that I will be here…”

“In this gym when you lift this bar….so your heart can soar with mine…”

As White Josh finished up his last rep, the choir vanished, the spotlight fell away, and the lights brightened again. White Josh was sweaty, but he had his normal hair back and the wind was gone. Darryl blinked his eyes a few times trying to understand what had just happened.

White Josh grabbed a towel and dried off. “That was great man, thanks. You want to take a go? I mean, I can take some of the weight off so don’t worry about that.”

“Umm, you know what? I…I ought to see how Rebecca and Paula are doing, see if they need any…you know what, I’m gonna take a rain check. Next time? Hmm?”

White Josh scratched his head but grinned. “Sure, I get it. Go…check on them.”

“But I will definitely see you for the 5k, right?” Darryl asked, his eyebrows raised.

White Josh nodded and Darryl smiled and waved before jogging away towards the girls in the lobby.


End file.
